Philippians 3:13

Brethren,. count not myself yet to have laid hold: but one thing. do, forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before.

“I count not myself yet to have laid hold”: “Brothers,. do not consider that. have captured it yet” (Gspd). “Count”: “Even after. further careful weighing of the evidence. verb meaning ‘to calculate precisely'. What then is to be done? There is only one thing--one must press on” (Hawthorne pp. 152-153). “I do not imagine that. have gained perfection yet or fully attained the purpose for which. was summoned” (Bruce p. 121). “But one thing. do”: “I do concentrate on this” (Phi). The Christian must have singleness of purpose (2 Corinthians 5:9). “Forgetting the things which are behind”: “ There are some persons who allow their moral and spiritual progress to be hindered by the burdens of memory. They fix their minds so definitely upon past experiences that they have no strength and no courage for present effort” (Erdman p. 123).

“In the Christian life there is no room for. person who desires to rest upon his laurels” (Barclay p. 66). Thus past success and failure cannot be allowed to slow the Christian down in the present. The Christian is not allowed to take. spiritual nap and neither is he excused from the need for present growth and activity. “Forget those wrongs done whose memory could paralyze one with guilt and despair. Forget, too, those attainments so far achieved as. Christian, the recollection of which might cause one to put life into neutral and to say, ‘I have arrived'. He wishes also to express the importance of continuous concentration on the things that are in front” (Hawthorne p. 153). Unfortunately, many Christians today are spiritually paralyzed by something that happened in the past, such as family problems, personal problems, or church problems. Paul refused to live in the past and he absolutely refused to allow the past to influence the present in. negative sense. Paul could never forget that he had once persecuted the church, but Paul always used the bad things in the past for positive motivation (1 Corinthians 15:9; 1 Timothy 1:13).

“Stretching forward”: “Straining every nerve for that which lies in front” (TCNT). “The verb used here is very descriptive, and calls to mind the attitude of. runner on the course, who with body bent forward, hand stretched to the fore, and eye fixed on the goal, strains forward with the utmost exertion in pursuit of his purpose” (Muller p. 124). “ Live full out now...unceasingly reach out toward” (Hawthorne p. 153). “Is used of. racer going hard for the tape. It describes the man who is going flat out for the finish” (Barclay p. 66). “To the things which are before”: This refers to the things mentioned in Philippians 3:9-11.